Giro d’Italia stage two in pictures

Carnage. Mayhem. Chaos. Words that have already been used to describe the second stage of the 2010 Giro d’Italia in the Netherlands.

Crashes punctuated the latter half of the stage from Amsterdam to Utrecht as nervous riders navigated the street furniture and constantly changing road width.

The majority of riders were mixed up in a crash at some point in the race, and one hold-up near the finish caused a split in the bunch that saw race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) lose his top spot to world champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team).

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) took a nasty fall on the stage, but climbed back on to the bike to quickly regain his composure and take the bunch finish ahead of Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) and Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas).

The thousands of Dutch fans lining the roads were expecting a spectacle… and they won’t have gone home disappointed.

Cycling Weekly photographer Graham Watson followed the race, and we present a selection of the day’s images.

No offence but I thought it was customary to wait for the pink/yellow/leaders jersey wearer in the event of a crash.

George

I must be a fortune teller . Just got back from amsterdam amazing .
Having spoken with the friendly teams I told garmin that Tyler would win I also gave cadel evens a pat on the back and said he would win. It all came true.

Great ride by wiggins on Saturday another prediction …. We will see more from him.